(761b) A Comparative Study of the Gasification Technology Versus Traditional Combustion Technologies for Power Generation in México

A study of the gasification technology versus traditional combustion technologies for power generation was performed in order to present the cost-benefit of them, and also, to verify the applicability of the gasification technology in the power generation in México.

At the moment, the gasification technology is not applied in the power generation in Mexico. However, seen the importance of its worldwide application, there has been an increasing interest from the main power energy company, Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) and the main oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) in the potential use that the gasification technology offers as an alternative for power generation. In addition, the technology allows synergies to other industries, the diversification in the use of different fuels, ultra low contaminant emissions, the used of the capture and sequestration of CO₂ technology, among others.

It is well known that the gasification technology as Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) become an attractive technology since it offers a clean path to power generation and flexibility on the feedstock, giving as a result a wide fuel diversification to be used in power plants.

The combustion technologies considered on this study were, subcritical pulverized coal and heavy fuel oil steam plants, supercritical pulverized coal steam plants, circulating fluidised bed steam plants and natural gas combined cycle plants. The simulation of the power plants on this study was performed by means of Thermoflow Inc. software. In the case of IGCC plants, different feedstock, such as coal, petroleum coke and heavy fuel oil were included in the evaluation.

The comparative study was performed on the base of a technoeconomic evaluation in function of the operative parameters and technical factors such as plant location, power energy efficiency, requirement of water process, emissions, etc. and, economical factors such as investment, fuel costs, etc. The results shown that the application of the IGCC technology can be considered as an attractive alternative for power generation in México, since it offers several advantages over the traditional combustion technologies.

Keywords:Electric power generation, IGCC, Gasification, Traditional combustion technologies, Fossil fuels, Efficiency, Costs